Plants Leave the Green House

Plants had been housed at the Asheville Men's Club since March. Starting from seeds of native, ornamentals and sunflower hybrids, we were not sure what to expect but as you can see, the plants are now looking strong and ready to find a home at the various Pollinator Gazers' backyard and community garden.All species were planted at the same time but notice the row of sunflowers in the back outgrowing everything else! The seeds were originally provided by Sow True Seeds downtown Asheville. Graciously donated from last year's stock, the seeds germination rate was quite high so we had plenty for the May 2nd workshop.

Workshop Activities

The workshop (May 2nd) included education on pollination - a discussion of plants and insects which pollinate them, the ecological and economic importance of pollination and the need to protect pollinators. On this picture: hands on practice in observing "insects" behavior, type of pollinators we can expect, what to record in the data form. Children used props to act as eager pollinators or indifferent bugs passing by.

Recording Observations

Pollination students filling out data sheet - Records are taken first in the backyard with a standard paper form, then copied into a computer form available on this website. This is the key to this project since the forms will let us consolidate and compare all observations. Our goal is to make at least one observation per week - more often is better - and observations can be either 5 or 10 minutes.The form itself is not very long but everything on it is important.

Taking it home

At the end of the workshop, children left with 2 plants each of different species to plant in their backyard or in a community garden. Some are starting to bloom, others will take more time - especially with the waves of cold weather that kept coming at us this Spring!We used a simple labeling system to keep track of plant species (around 15 different species in all). By now, we hope they finding a cozy spot in a garden and keep on growing. Very soon, we expect the first pollinators visits!

What has been done (as of end of May 2013).

Photo by Townes E. - 10 years old.

20 children (ages 6 to 13) from the Asheville area have been participating since we started in May. They contributed 40 field observation forms and many pictures of flowering plants and pollinators. We hope to get many more. For now some of the results are posted under the data tab of this project and most of the pictures made up the photo gallery. The children have learned about different types of pollinators in their backyards, taking care of their plant specimen, looking for good plants to do their observations, taking pictures of flowers and pollinators and using a paper and electronic form to record their observations. If you enjoy the project and would like to participate, we always welcome newcomers and would be glad to get you started.